


Mandatory Purification

by MycroftFeels



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: Addiction, Alastor Being a Jerk (Hazbin Hotel), Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alcohol Withdrawal, Charlie Magne Tries, Cinnamon Roll Charlie Magne, Drug Addiction, Drug Withdrawal, Good Friend Cherri Bomb (Hazbin Hotel), Husk Being Husk (Hazbin Hotel), Other, Poor Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel), Sex Addiction, Vaggie is So Done (Hazbin Hotel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:22:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27644069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MycroftFeels/pseuds/MycroftFeels
Summary: Alastor manages to buy Angel's contract from Valentino. Angel's not sure what's worse, if working for Val or having to obey Alastor.
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

Angel didn't hate the hotel. He'd gone there of his own accord, after all. He knew what staying there entitled. Well, in theory.  
At first, they were very lenient with him. He still worked for Val, which meant a lot of things... but on the one plus side, lots of sex. Besides, he got to go out on his own, almost at all hours, unsupervised. At least if he said he was going to work. He was supposed to be "clean", but no one really checked if he was getting high at work, or bringing drugs into his room. Basically, as long as he wasn't doing them in front of anyone, he was off the hook. He was constantly hanging out at the bar at the hotel too, and even though the girls didn't like it, they also didn't forbid it right away. He could also visit Cherri, and she would visit him as well, and as long as there were no televised turf wars going on, everyone was none the wiser to what they were up to. 

And then, it happened. It wasn't unlike any other evening. Angel had gone to work like any other day, so he didn't expect to hear word that the radio demon was in the building. Al wasn't the type, obviously. So Angel rushed to Val's office, where he had heard Alastor was. Of course he was still the Angel Dust, so even though the demon at the door tried to dissuade him from going in, she didn't really attempt to stop him. He walked into Valentino and Alastor having some sort of business meeting, sitting across from each other, Val clutching the arms of his seat, Al smiling as usual.  
"Angel cakes" Val said, dragging out the words. "We were just talking about you."   
"What's goin' on?" Angel asked, as he closed the door behind him. He didn't like this thing that was happening one bit. Alastor and Valentino weren't exactly close friends. And they were discussing him? It couldn't be good. Not at all.  
"Your friend here doesn't like that you're working for me, sweetheart. He'd like to buy your contract."   
The fuck? Angel looked straight at Alastor, who seemed undisturbed by anything, not even Angel walking into the room.   
"I was just saying that you have a debt with me, a big one at that. And that it's not going to be cheap to buy your pretty little ass."   
"And I was just saying" Alastor almost interrupted. "That money will not be an issue. I will pay off any debts. And extra for your troubles."  
Val kept clenching his jaw at Alastor's words. He obviously wasn't going to let Angel go that easily, but he wasn't adamantly saying no either. He definitely had a price, and everyone in the room knew it. Even though he had made it perfectly clear that Angel had become less of an asset and too hard to manage since staying at the hotel, he was going to get as much out of Alastor as possible. Angel knew Valentino was growing sick and tired of him, and just plain annoyed at him lately, but Al didn't. Or he pretended he didn't.   
At this point, Angel kept quiet. He could have lashed out at them, and he certainly wanted to (being treated like a literal object to be bought and sold wasn't exactly making him feel appreciated at fucking all), but he knew it would just complicate things further. He wanted to know how this thing played out. Even if he wasn't sure what being 'owned' by Alastor entitled, it had to be at least a bit better than being with Val. Nothing could be worse than being with Val.   
"Angel, get the fuck out" Val spat at him.   
"But..." he began, and was immediately interrupted.  
"I said get out. The grown ups are talking." Valentino wasn't yelling, but his tone told Angel he wasn't taking a no for an answer either. Angel turned to look at Alastor, who didn't speak or move at all, his permanent grin unfaltering. Reluctantly, Angel stepped out of the room.

Angel felt like he was growing old out there. It took them ages, but finally Alastor stepped out of Val's office.   
"What the hell just happened?" he blurted at Alastor. Alastor walked away from Val's office, and towards the elevator. Angel followed.  
"We reached an arrangement, my dear" Alastor answered, way too calm and composed for Angel's taste.   
"And what the fuck does that mean? Ya own my ass now?" They stepped into the elevator and Al pushed the button for the ground floor.  
Alastor considered it for a moment. "One could say that, yes. But I assure you this is a much better deal for you all around. I don't intend to maltreat you like Valentino did. Nor to take any financial gain from you. Your contract with me only has one clause."  
Angel wondered if he really wanted to know. He decided that he had to. "And what would that be?" They stepped outside the building.  
Alastor answered with his grin looking wider than usual. "You are to stay at the hotel and obey every hotel rule. That is, no drugs or alcohol, no sex work and, really, no intercourse outside of a committed relationship (which we all know you do not have, mind you). No criminal activity whatsoever, of course. Visitors shall be searched for contraband each time, and you won't be allowed to go out unsupervised."  
As Alastor spoke, Angel felt his stomach dropping further and further down into his abdomen. He couldn't really be serious. He intended to treat him like a prisoner.   
"Hotel staff is conducting a search of your room right now to get rid of anything illegal. You'll be searched at the door when we arrive as well, so don't even try it."  
"Ya gotta be fuckin' joking!" he said, raising his voice.   
"I assure you my dear, I'm not. And watch your language."   
"The fuck I'm doing this! I'll just have Val take me back. I'm his golden goose, ya know? I can make him more money than you could ever have given him!"   
"I'd rethink that statement if I were you." Alastor turned to look up at one of Valentino's office windows and Angel did the same. Sure enough, there was Val, with a shit eating grin, a thick stack of cash in his hand, waving at them mockingly. "Would you look at that" said Alastor matter of factly. "He took a little change from my advance already." He turned back at Angel. "You were saying, mon ange?"  
Angel could feel tears forming, so he looked away. Working for Valentino was the worst thing to ever happen to him in his whole afterlife, but this? They were trying to turn him into a nun. They were taking everything that made life in hell worthwhile away from him. Well, fuck them, he wasn't going down without a fight.   
Alastor walked him to a car that was waiting for them and opened the door for him. Angel got in an Alastor followed, closing the door after himself. The trip to the hotel was completely silent. Once or twice Angel had to hold back tears. Alastor didn't seem to notice.


	2. Chapter 2

As soon as they stepped into the hotel, Angel grabbed Charlie by the arm and all but dragged her all the way to her office. Vaggie shot him a death glare and seemed to be about to say something, but Charlie gestured to her not to.   
Angel slammed the door behind them and turned to her with murder in his eyes.  
"What the actual hell do you all think you're doin'?"   
"Angel, we're just trying to help you out. We were getting nowhere by letting you just do whatever you wanted."   
"So ya thought literally forcin' me to follow your rules was the way ta go?" He ran two hands through his hair, frustrated. "Do ya have any idea the kind of shit show you just signed yourselves up for?"   
Charlie seemed confused. "I know it's going to be tough on you, but..."   
"Tough!?" he snarled. Did this bitch even realize what was about to go down? "If you make me go cold turkey on all the shit that I'm taking, ya really are gonna understand the meanin' of hell real soon."  
Charlie let out a sigh. She walked over to him and took his hand. She gently walked him over to a chair and sat him down with her hands on his shoulders. He was squirming trying to get away from her touch all the while. "I know. I've thought this through. Listen, the whole 'contract with Alastor' thing? Well, yeah, it's real. Quite real. But it's more of a formality than anything else. Getting you out of your thing with Valentino and whatnot. If you really, really don't want to do this, I guess we could find a way to sign your way out. But you gotta at least try first. Get over the withdrawals and see how you feel. I know you want to do this deep down, or you'd never have come here in the first place. Even if you don't believe in redemption, you can have a better life here."  
Ok, she wasn't all wrong. Like mostly wrong, but not completely. "Fine, I was done workin' fa Val, but all the rest? I don't mind sucking dick for drug money, hell, I'm great at it! And getting high is fun!"   
"Are you getting high, though? Or just not sick?"   
Oh, bitch. Angel felt like someone had just spat right on his face. He felt his jaw drop almost to the fucking ground. How did this little bitch know these things? Was she suddenly his therapist or sumtin'?   
She sighed again, seemingly trying to find the words. She sat down across from him. "You will be able to have sex again, even go back to sex work if that's what you really want. And drinking and drugs too, if you learn to make it something that's just fun again, other than something you have to do to feel normal. But you need to step away for a while, force yourself to stop being dependant on those things, or you'll never be able to be as happy as you can be here. You're free from Val, Angel. You should make the most of it."   
He had crossed both pairs of arms over himself and had been looking away from her gaze as she spoke. She did have a couple of good points, he hated to admit. But he knew doing what Charlie wanted was going to be so fucking painful, he didn't even want to consider it. Angel kept bouncing his leg anxiously.  
"If I decided to play along this little game of yours" he said, still not meeting her gaze. "For how long would I have to sign my soul over to you? Or Alastor?"   
"About a year would suffice." Charlie said, trying to make it sound like it was no big deal.  
"A year!?"   
"How long do you think it would take, honestly? This is a lot of work we have ahead of us here."   
Yeah, cause I'm such a slutty fuckin' junkie, he thought to himself, but said nothing.   
"Ya know withdrawal is gonna fuckin' suck for me, which means I'm gonna do ma fuckin' best to make it suck fa ya too."   
"I figured as much." Charlie said with a little smile. Angel saying that kinda meant that he was onboard with the whole thing, didn't it? "I've already procured the best doctors in hell to help us out. You're gonna get all the medications you need and everything to make it as comfortable as possible."   
"Yeah, I bet it's gonna be super fuckin' comfortable..."   
"So" she said, ignoring his sarcastic comment. She conjured his new contract and slid it across the table to him. Angel could see Alastor's signature at the bottom, and a dotted line for him to sign as well. He looked up at Charlie, who was offering him a pen. "Are you in?"   
Angel felt his heart trying to escape his chest. When he took the pen, he thought he could see Charlie's eyes flash red for a moment. Her teeth also looked sharper as she smiled, and Angel closed his eyes and bit his lip as he signed his name at the bottom of the page.   
"Good!" she said, looking as cute and harmless as usual. "Let's begin."


	3. Chapter 3

Angel woke up in a cold sweat. It seemed fucking way too early for withdrawal symptoms to start, but of course that was just his luck. He tried to do the math on when he had last taken each drug, but his brain was a jumbled mess and he gave up before making his budding headache worse.   
After his meeting with Charlie, they made sure he wasn't sneaking in anything, and happily informed that they had also cleaned his room of drugs. When he was left alone he went a thousand times through the room, trying to find a stash they may have missed, but with no luck. They were thorough fuckers, and it seemed he would just have to do with some benzos every once in a fucking while.   
He got up grunting and headed straight for Charlie and Vaggie's room. He didn't even bother to look at the time. He pounded at their door.  
"Wakey, wakey, fish-heads. I need some pills if you don't want me to murder every single demon in this hotel" he said in a sing-song voice.  
Vaggie violently opened the door and looked at him like she was about to chomp his head right off. "It's the middle... of the night."   
Angel shoved her out of the way and went into the room. Charlie was still in bed, rubbing her eyes. He extended his hand, holding his palm upwards. She nodded, still half asleep, and opened her nightstand drawer with a tiny key. She shuffled around for a second and procured a bottle. She took out a single pill and gave it to him.   
"You're joking" he said "how much is this?"   
Charlie rubbed her eyes again. "It's the prescribed amount for your weight. You can have another in a couple of hours. Well, not a couple..."   
Angel rolled his eyes at her but made fist around the little pill and walked out. "If this thing doesn't help me get some fucking sleep, you're not getting any either, just so you know!" he said as he walked down the hall. He heard Vaggie slam the door shut behind him.   
When he was back in his room he swallowed the pill dry and looked at the time on his phone. It was four thirty in the morning. With a groan he went back to bed. It would take him some fourty five minutes of tossing and turning to fall back asleep. And he knew that when he woke, it wouldn't be quite as easy to make the symptoms subside. He fell asleep to unpleasant dreams.


	4. Chapter 4

Angel woke up suddenly later that morning with a pounding headache and a feeling of impending doom. Great, he was already in pain, and he was already anxious as fuck. Only more good things to come his way, then. He groaned, turning to his side and covering his head with the blankets. He really, really didn't want to go through this shit, and apparently he wasn't going to have a choice. Those pills Charlie gave him earlier were definitely barely even gonna keep him from throwing himself out the fucking window. 

Angel heard the door of his room open and someone walk in, uninvited. "A little privacy would be nice!" he barked.  
"Nonsense!" Alastor's voice replied. "It's a beautiful morning and there's a lot of work to do."

Angel emerged from underneath the blankets, looking pissed. "Work? Ya must be fuckin' daft if ya think I can do anything but be miserable on this bed right now. I'm in a bit of a state at the moment, if ya haven't noticed."

"Of course, I imagined you wouldn't be up for much. But you do 'work' for me now, and what I say goes. And the plan is to get you nice and (possibly) redeemed as swiftly and easily as possible. So, first of all, we need to get you out of bed and get some breakfast inside you."

Angel felt a wave of nausea hit him at the thought of food. He felt his blood boil inside him at the sight of Alastor's smug grin. "Ya absolute fuckin' ass, don't ya think for a minute that I don't know exactly what you're doing! Ya just wanna watch me squirm and beg, and when you're good and satisfied with that little show, maybe watch me crawl back ta Val too, fa good measure!"

For a split of a second Alastor seemed a bit taken aback, but then the grin on his face grew even wider. "Nonsense" he repeated, but the tone of his voice was different than before. Angel knew he was lying thought his teeth. He didn't care about his 'redeemption' one fucking bit. He wanted to see him crash and burn, just like he'd said when they'd first met. 

Angel was about to grab the first thing he could get his hands on and throw it at Alastor's head, but a shiver running down his spine interrupted him. He felt light-headed all of the sudden and had to focus all his energy into not spilling his guts out on himself and the bed for a minute. "Leave me the fuck alone" he barely managed to say.

"I'll come back later, then" Alastor said, seemingly undisturbed by Angel's state. "I'm sure that even if you don't want to eat, you'll be glad to get some medicine into you at least."   
Angel covered himself with the blankets again, and tried not to whimper while Alastor was still in the room. When he heard the door closing, he cursed out loud and cried as quietly as he could manage.


	5. Chapter 5

Angel spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how to by-pass Hotel 'security measures'. He just needed a little something something to take the edge off, and everything would be ok. No one even had to know. But he couldn't just walk out the front door, obviously. He still had his phone, though, and a couple of friends who would be willing to help out.   
He shot Cherri a text or two explaining his situation. She was reluctant, at first. It wasn't that she'd didn't want to lend him a hand, or that she fully agreed with what was happening inside the hotel, but she honestly didn't know if it was so bad for Angel to stay clear of the hard stuff. Maybe it was a good thing, even. She was the one who'd seen him at his worst, and in her eyes the drugs had never helped. They'd made stuff worse most of the time, in fact.   
But after a little convincing, she budged. It was just a tiny bit, to help with the withdrawal. The girls at the hotel had no idea what they were doing, and Alastor was a fucking asshole who wanted to see him fail, anyway. And Angel was sick, really sick and it would just be a small amount, one line, one hit and he promised that'd be it. On the other side of the line Cherri ran a hand down her face and reluctantly agreed to help. 

Not even an hour later, she was scuttling around the hotel. Angel, who had been biting his nails at his window, signalled her. A bit of spiderweb later, and she had climbed up the wall till she reached his room.   
"Ya got it?" he asked anxiously.  
"Why would I come all the way here if I didn't?" she said as she searched her pockets. She found the baggy and took it out. It was a big-ish one, but it was supposed to last. At least that was what Angel had said. She held it in the air between two fingers, ready to deposit it on Angel's waiting palms. Cherri happened to notice his pupils had suddenly gotten as big as plates. It wouldn't surprise her if he started salivating or something too.   
"It's supposed to last you through this whole thing, remember? A month, at least. I don't wanna have to come back to this place. I'm not trying to get obliterated by the fucking radio demon or something."   
Angel was going to tell her to stop worrying so fuckin' much, and just give him the goddamn drugs already, but at that exact moment, as if summoned by Cherri just mentioning him, Angel's bedroom door flew open and Alastor appeared in the flesh before them. They froze in place.   
"Feeling any better, mon cher?" he declared stepping in, immediately stopping in his tracks when he saw what was going on.   
"Oh. Well. I think I will take that, miss, if you don't mind." A shadow manifested from behind Alastor, and snatched the bag off of Cherri's hand, not before Angel tried to beat it to it, managing only to end up grabbing nothing but air, looking desperate and pathetic in the process.   
Ok, sure, they were busted, but maybe he could talk his way through this. He usually could, and he had to try, at least. He needed that fuckin' shit so bad, he didn't care it was Alastor holding it now, he'd say anything, do anything to get it back. There was no way he could try to pull something like this again. His window was as good as nailed shut by now.   
"Hey, Al, buddy? Could ya close the door behind ya?" he began, as innocently as he could manage without sounding condescending.   
"I don't see why I would do that" Alastor stated simply.  
"I kinda wanna talk to ya. Ya know, without anyone else finding out 'bout this?"   
Alastor didn't move a muscle. His permanent grin seemed to get bigger, though, and Angel could see Cherri out the corner of his eye, trying to remain unnoticed but trembling like a goddamn leaf.   
Angel took a cautious step towards Alastor. He didn't seem to notice, or care.  
"Please, man. The withdrawal is killing me. It's just till I manage to get my body used ta being on small doses, and then nothing at all. I promise, I'll just use it to help me cut back till I'm off it. Please?"   
He took another step and tentatively held his hand out, to which Alastor reacted by pocketing the baggy immediately.   
"Absolutely not."   
Angel felt the blood begin to boil in his veins. Cherri must have noticed that he was about to go for Alastor's throat cause she immediately intervened. Probably against her every instinct.   
"Hey, mister Radio Demon, sir. I don't believe we've met. Maybe these are not the best circumstances, but... I'm Cherri, nice to me you?" she held her hand out, still shaking and sweating profusely.   
Alastor turned to her and scrutinized her for a moment. He then shook her hand.   
"I don't really believe you are truly such a polite young lady, given you're Angel's friend, and of course, as you say, the circumstances in which we are meeting... But I guess it's... Nice to meet you too."  
"Great" she said, smiling unnaturally wide. "You see, I'm on your side here. Like you said, I'm Angel's friend. I'd like nothing better than to see him clean."  
Both Alastor and Angel raised an eyebrow at her. Neither said anything.   
"But he's right. It'll be easier for everyone if we help him cut back slowly. I... I didn't come here to mess this whole thing up, I came here to help. And, granted, I probably shouldn't have tried to give the drugs to him, but... I wanna help. I'll help."   
Alastor gestured for her to stop talking.   
"That's very noble of you, but the answer is still no."   
Angel looked like he was ready to pounce at him.   
"You can be the one to call the shots. Keep the bag. Whatever you say, goes. You'll give him as much or as little as you decide."   
Alastor looked at her from head to toe again, but it was like he was seeing her for the first time.  
"I don't know what makes you think I need to be in control at all times. But fine. I'll talk to the girls about it and we can..." He turned to look at Angel who looked sickly and still seemed to be about to snap at the next small inconvenience. "...see how to make this a little easier on our lovely Angel."   
With that he left the room, leaving them both silent and frozen in place for a moment. 

"Well" Cherri began. "At least we didn't get fuckin' murdered, I guess."  
"Still, I didn't get my fix" Angel said, sulkingly.   
"You will, babe. Give it a minute."  
Angel sighed and lit a cigarette with shaky hands. He ran a hand through his hair.   
"Even if that's true, they're just gonna give me a little bit, anyway."  
"Wasn't that the plan? Babe..." she said, walking over to him. She put her hands on his arms "I promise I'll make sure you get through this as smoothly as possible. Okay? We'll get you clean, no withdrawal, deal?"   
Maybe it was too big of a promise, but she truly meant it. She held out her pinky finger for him to interlock with his. He did.  
"Deal" he said, with a tiny smile.


End file.
